Centre for Indigenous Arts Research & Technology builds space for Indigenous sovereignty, survivance

Nestled in the heart of the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy is a new space dedicated to imagining and materializing creative Indigenous technological expression.

The Centre for Indigenous Arts Research & Technology (CIART) is a lab at the University of Lethbridge that provides space where Indigenous researchers, artists and scholars can address creative practice technologies from their own worldviews, lived experiences and sovereign cultural, spiritual and material legacies.

Working with Indigenous Elders, faculty partners, grad students, artists, students and other external groups, CIART supports projects on Indigenous technologies and technological materials that have been overlooked and devalued by the colonial perspective.

The core mandate of CIART is to support Indigenous scholars, artists and community members as they interweave ancient and new technologies to support their sovereignty and survivance. Alum Dr. Migueltzinta Solís (MFA '19, PhD '23) is the Interim Director of CIART.

As work is getting underway with CIART, the team is preparing to showcase their projects to the community through open houses, roving labs and exhibits. Their next event will take place during the University of Lethbridge's Indigenous Awareness Week celebration.

CIART Open House

Wednesday, March 19 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Come visit the Centre for Indigenous Arts Research & Technology (CIART) —a lab space dedicated to imagining and materializing creative Indigenous technological expression. Student projects will be on display, including quillwork, virtual environments and 3D scanning. To find us, follow the signs on the eighth floor of the University Centre for the Arts.

Co-created research

Though in its early stages, CIART is bustling with activity—several students, artists and collaborators are already working on unique projects with an explicitly Indigenous focus.

Iisoimaahkaa (Driving Along the Beach) Blair Many Fingers (BA ’24) is an MA student who recently started working as a Researcher in Residence with CIART. Blair studies cultural heritage resource management, looking at how Blackfoot culture, histories and ways of life are represented at sacred sites, focusing on the Battle of Belly River and Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park and ways to decolonize resource management. Through CIART, Blair is hoping to enhance his thesis work by making his research accessible to the community and use technology to illustrate land-based learning and storytelling.

“I feel like CIART is a place where I can be unapologetically Blackfoot,” Blair says. “It gives me inspiration and gives me a more positive outlook on how my thesis is going to look, rather than being strictly academic, it brings a creative spirit into my work.”

BFA - New Media/Management student Darby Herman is an Artist in Residence with CIART. For her, being a part of CIART allows her to connect with others who can bring unique skills to help her in her own work, which looks at tactile ways to teach others about Blackfoot language and values.

“Being able to ask people that are more knowledgeable about certain things is a huge help in my work,” Darby says.

“I realized that I grew up with a lot more Blackfoot culture and traditions than I thought. Realizing that helps my research, as I look at how we can get learning across in an interactive way,” Darby adds. “When it comes to the higher-tech stuff than what I can do, I can refer to people who are more knowledgeable. It’s a great relief to be able to proceed with research because I can access this information from other people, and they can do the same for me.”

“Blackfoot and Indigenous-centric research methodologies are interdisciplinary in nature,” Blair adds.

“It takes a step back from that focused, compartmentalized approach to creating and gathering knowledge, and really tries to look at the big picture. It can get complicated and daunting, but as you work through it, there's interconnections within every discipline that are enlightening and reassuring.”

For example, a previous CIART project was the BuffaloMech exhibition from National Indigenous Peoples Day 2024 that showcased the interdisciplinary creative work by Indigenous undergraduate students. The exhibit examined what Indigenous technologies for survivance would look like, using the idea of the buffalo as an entity of sustenance and knowledge.

Abundant Intelligences Niitsitapi Pod

One of the main projects that CIART is involved in is the Abundant Intelligences program. Abundant Intelligences is a global Indigenous-led research program that looks at Artificial Intelligence through an Indigenous lens, employing Indigenous knowledge systems as frameworks to understand how technology can be created and used in existing lifeways.

Supported by the Government of Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Abundant Intelligences is led by Co-Directors Jason Edward Lewis at Concordia University and Hēmi Whaanga at Massey University, with Co-Investigators Jacqueline Rice, Associate Vice President (Research), and Iikaisskini (Low Horn), Dr. Leroy Little Bear (BASc (BA) '72, DASc '04), Vice-Provost, Iniskim Indigenous Relations, leading the Niitsitapi Pod.

With a goal to develop methods for improving AI to better serve Indigenous communities and explore culturally-grounded AI systems to improve AI for all, CIART is home to the Niitsitapi Pod of the program.

The Niitsitapi Pod is one of several Pods through Abundant Intelligences, which brings Indigenous knowledge-holders, institutions, artists and scientists together to imagine, design and prototype new computational practices in collaboration with local Indigenous communities and research frameworks.

New Media Associate Professor Christine Clark (BFA - New Media ’10, MFA ’14) is co-chair of the Niitsitapi Pod with Amethyst First Rider. Christine’s role is to assist student research projects, weave through institutional bureaucracies and facilitate research funding.

“The global Pod network is looking for ways to make AI work for the benefit of Indigenous communities, and in doing so, making AI work for the benefit of humanity as a whole,” Christine says.

“Bringing these values into AI systems is only going to make it better for everyone. We can help recognize the bias in these systems and through collaboration and building capacity, we can start to solve these problems.”

Research in A Good Way

Working with Elders is of the utmost importance to CIART researchers, as Christine says having the direction of Elders helps guide the researchers and ensure they are balanced and adhering to Blackfoot values.

“There’s a special collaboration that we get to have with Blackfoot Elders. The Niitsitapi Pod’s approach to AI research is directed by Elders. They are really charting the path forward for how we explore our research questions and create confidence in the work that everyone is doing,” Christine says.

“We’re really fortunate to have this as part of our structure and to have supportive partnerships with Elders, in particular with Dr. Leroy Little Bear and Amethyst First Rider,” she adds.

“One of the roles of Elders is to bring calmness to places that are chaotic,” Blair adds. “When we were getting attacked, or starving, the Elders would be there to guide us, to bring us back into the valley.”

Ethical research in AI

With a strong focus on artificial intelligence in CIART, the Centre’s researchers know how crucial it is to conduct ethical and culturally sensitive research.

“An important thing to be thinking about right now and critiquing and questioning is the hierarchy of knowledge,” says Researcher in Residence and PhD student, Michelle Sylvestre (BFA - Art ’17, MFA '21). “What is counted as knowledge and how can that be shared and disseminated in ways that are respectful and recognized?”

For Darby, even though working with AI tools is new to her, she’s eager to learn how to apply it for her work.

“It's having that freedom to explore and use creativity. CIART has given me the opportunity to access resources to figure out how to accomplish my goals. That experience is empowering, knowing that I can create these things and meet new people. It's finding a purpose.”

“I’m still figuring out my path and I like playing around with different software and programs. It’s important and inspiring to have people around me who are so interdisciplinary, and I look up to those who have knowledge I don’t,” says Kaiya Healy, a University of Alberta student doing an internship with the Niitsitapi Pod.

“Working in CIART is an opportunity to explore my identity as a mixed Blackfoot/Black Canadian,” Kaiya adds. “It’s been really fulfilling – I get to speak with my grandparents more, I get to know the Niitsitapi Pod and how they connect to Blackfoot culture, and I get to implement that into my own media practices.”

Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge

“CIART gives me an outlet to express who I am as a storyteller, which is very important to have while you’re doing academic research, as there’s a lot of colonial violence in the domains I’m researching,” Blair adds.

“To have an outlet where I can be Blackfoot is special and using digital media to do that creates an opportunity where more people can access this knowledge. But we have to be careful of how we proceed with AI. How is Indigenous knowledge represented in AI?”

Blair says this knowledge tends to be marginalized as AI technologies are predominantly created by white, male engineers and technicians, adding that there is a high potential for Indigenous knowledge to be misrepresented within AI systems.

“How do we bring out stories and our culture into that? There’s a lot of rich Indigenous knowledge that we can bring into the digital realm. That’s where the Elders come in to guide us, saying what is appropriate and not appropriate to share. In every step of our research, they should be and are consulted.”